We Hate Hollywood

Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by Laeta Kalogridis
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, Michelle Williams, Patricia Clarkson, Max von Sydow
Rated R for violence, nudity, and profanity
Rating - 2 bullet holes

The opening notes of Shutter Island hooked me. Apparently, they are Ingram Marshall’s 1981 “Fog Tropes”. I wasn’t familiar with the piece, but its somber and emphatic notes evoked classics such as J. Lee Thompson’s 1962 Cape Fear. That film, of course, was remade by Scorcese.  Like that film, Shutter wastes no time in creating an atmosphere of dread.

Scorsese mainstay Leonardo DiCaprio plays Teddy Daniels.  He and his new partner Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) are federal marshals sent to a remote island off Boston to investigate the disappearance of a prisoner from the castle-turned-prison for violent offenders who are criminally insane.  There, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley) explains that he sees these people as his patients, not prisoners.  He has lofty goals of helping these criminals instead of punishing them.  Dr. Cawley explains that the patient in question, a mother named Rachel who drowned her children, simply vanished from her room without a trace.  The disappearance has truly perpelxed him but Daniels and Aule suspect it was an inside job.

This is a departure for Scorsese, and he certainly seems to have a firm grasp of the psychological thriller.  He effectively creates a David Lynch-like nightmare in which fantasy and reality blur.  At times, the film is difficult to follow, but that’s the point.  And what more can be said about DiCaprio?  The guy can seriously act.  Gone is the innocent, golden-haired Jack.  Though, if you’re really keeping score, labeling DiCaprio as a romantic lead is naive.  Check out What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, The Basketball Diaries, and This Boy’s Life which all came before Titanic.  He shines when he is plumbing the deep, dark, violent depths of his characters.  His performance here is nothing short of great once again.

Technically, the film is magnificent.  Who would expect less from Scorsese?  But my biggest problem is with the story.  This is a difficult film to review without giving away key plot elements.  Based on the novel by Dennis Lehane, Shutter Island didn’t have a whole lot of surprises for me.  If you’re an aficionado of psychological thrillers and have seen the trailer, you probably have a good idea of where the story is going.  I had it pegged from almost the very beginning.  As a result, I ended up being bored throughout most of it.  As the layers of the plot begin to be peeled away, I was almost open-mouthed with shock at how much the film keeps kicking a dead horse.  Ok I get it I kept thinking.

I can’t help it.  I’m such a stickler for a good story.  I know this is Scorsese.  I know he is a legend.  I know he’s made some true classics, and I’m a fan of a lot of them.  I know he makes masterpieces.  But, I don’t think Shutter Island is one by any stretch of the imagination.  I just wasn’t engaged by it.  If you want a much better adaptation of a Lehane novel, watch Mystic River.

Directed by Paul Greengrass
Written by Brian Helgeland
Starring Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Amy Ryan, Brendan Gleeson, Jason Isaacs, Khalid Abdalla
Rated R for violence and profanity
Rating -1 bullet hole

There have been many Iraq War-centric movies since 2003. Many of them are not good. The best one, The Hurt Locker, just won the Best Picture Oscar.  One of the strengths of that film was that it was apolitical.  The strength of Paul Greengrass’s film is that it is not.

Matt Damon plays Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller.  He and his team of Army inspectors have been tasked with finding weapons of mass destruction which, as everyone knows, were the catalyst for the Iraq invasion which has just started in the film’s timeline.  Chief Miller is frustrated.  This is the third location they’ve been sent to that is empty.  At a briefing, he questions the intelligence that is sending he and his team on these wild goose chases.  An ominous Brendan Gleeson glares at him and leaves the meeting.  At this point, I kind of rolled my eyes.  Oh great.  Here we go…the stereotypical government blowhard who is going to make Miller’s life hell for questioning the intel.  Actually, no.  Gleeson is playing CIA officer Martin Brown.  Brown shares Miller’s frustrations and confides in him that he too is trying to figure out what the hell is going on.  I appreciated this break from stereotype.  Instead, the slimy bureaucrat is played effectively by the affable Greg Kinnear as intelligence officer Poundstone.  Poundstone is obviously a very powerful man.  He has a special forces squad who report directly to him and constantly clash with Miller’s team.  Miller also meets Wall Street journalist Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan) who is also on a quest for the truth.  She has penned several articles in which her source - code named Magellan - gave her very credible information about the WMDs.  But, now she is also beginning to suspect that Poundstone has his fingers even in that intel she’s been getting.  Finally, Miller meets an Iraqi named Frankie (Khalid Abdalla) who claims to have information about secret meeting taking place with an Iraqi general named Al Rawi (Igal Naor).  Miller believes that Al Rawi is his key to finding the truth, and the chase begins.

What I strongly admired about Green Zone is that while there are many characters, the plot does not get bogged down in these intricate complexities that make other espionage films like Syriana hard to endure.  The script - by Oscar winner Brian Helgeland - lays out the detailed plot in a manner that is clear and easy to follow without pandering to the audience.  The events of the plot are fiction but loosely based on the book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran.

Another asset of the film is in its pacing.  Much of the film is a chase for a man and, in a much larger sense, the truth.  It is filmed with a break neck pace and with Greengrass’s shaky cam (or queasy cam as some call it) style that he employed in the Bourne films and in United 93.  There are many critics of this style, but I like it a lot.  To me, this style is more effective than 3D in embedding you into the flow of the film.

Greengrass is obviously making a statement about the lack of intelligence that led us into war.  He infuses real life events successfully with his own narrative.  Much has been talked about the disbanding of the Republican Guard led to the current insurgency.  Charles Ferguson’s powerful documentary No End In Sight talked about this in detail.  Here, Greengrass uses this event as a key in creating unbearable tension to the plot.

It is this successful mix of politics and storytelling that is probably the film’s only weakness.  The fact that faulty intelligence led us to war is nothing new.  That aspect might have been more effective four or five years ago.  But regardless, this is one terrifically crafted war thriller that manages to get your pulse racing without devolving into a mindless action film.

I apologize for the delay.  In late January, I was involved with a death in the family.  After dealing with the grief and logistics of that, it’s just taken me some time to get going with this site again.  But here we go.

Last year, I wrote about why we hate Oscar.  I mentioned there that while there are things that annoy me about the telecast and the way the awards are handled overall, I still watch them even though I don’t put a lot of stock in them.  I love movies, so I still have an interest in watching the show.  I’m not crazy about making predictions but I do get asked a lot, so here we go.  Keep in mind that I have not seen all of the films.  I do my best, but it’s hard to see everything out there when you’re still a maverick in this game.

Best Picture:

Having 10 Best Picture nominations is stupid.  In the 1930s and 40s, there were 8-12 Best Picture nominees so this isn’t the first time this has happened.  But I - and most people I imagine - prefer keeping the 5 nominations.  The show is already long enough.  Plus, it lets in idiotic titles like Avatar.  One interesting sidenote is that instead of just picking their favorite, the Academy voters this year are doing a system where they rank the 10 films in order of preference.  Then, the bottom 2 are eliminated, and they are asked to vote again, etc.

The Hurt Locker (winner) - Terrific war film from Kathryn Bigelow.  It manages to be an insightful commentary on war as a drug and how it affects 3 people very differently while remaining politically neutral.  At the same time, it is a technical masterpiece and an absolute nail biter.  And why can’t an action film finally win the coveted prize?  In addition, Kathryn Bigelow won the Director’s Guild Award, and the film won the Producer’s Guild Award.  Historically, this points to an Oscar win.
Avatar - If The Hurt Locker loses, it will be to Avatar.  I’m still amazed at our capacity for stupidity.
The Blind Side - How the hell was this nominated?   I liked the film but it is nowhere near Oscar worthy.  Even more troubling is the fact that as the “true story” has become known, we see how manipulated we’ve been by the Hollywoodization of the film.
District 9 - A terrific piece of science fiction from South African director Neill Blomkamp.  If you haven’t seen this yet, you really should rent it.
An Education - the only film in this category I haven’t yet seen.
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up - Sublime Pixar film.  Made my Top Ten of the Decade list
Up in the Air

Best Actor

Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) (winner) - Jeff Bridges has been steamrolling his contenders in the other awards shows and deservedly so.  He is easily one of the best actors working today and his performance as Bad Blake is an absolute joy to watch.
Colin Firth (A Single Man) - Colin Firth’s performance is both haunting and heartbreaking.  A true achievement.
George Clooney (Up in the Air) - George makes acting look so easy, but that takes real skill.  He is perfect in this role.
Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) - Jeremy Renner has been in the business 20 years but it largely unknown until now.  This outstanding performance has finally put him on the map.
Morgan Freeman (Invictus) - Haven’t seen Invictus but the Academy loves Morgan even tho, many critics didn’t like this performance.

Best Actress

Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) (winner) - Bullock has been gathering up many awards already.  This is her best role but, like the film, far from Oscar-worthy. Again, I’m betting on stupidity.
Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia) - If there is an upset, it will be Meryl.  And it would be justified.  I’m still amazed at Meryl’s ability to completely disappear into a character as she did with Julia Child.
Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) - She won’t win but to be nominated for your first performance is an astonishing feat.
Carey Mulligan (An Education) - Haven’t seen it
Helen Mirren (The Last Station) - Haven’t seen it.

Best Supporting Actor

Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) (winner) - He will win by a landslide.  I can’t even think of a villainous performance more deserving in probably the last decade.
Matt Damon (Invictus) - Haven’t seen it.
Woody Harrelson (The Messenger) - Haven’t seen it.
Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones) - Haven’t seen it.
Christopher Plummer (The Last Station) - Haven’t seen it.

Best Supporting Actress

Mo’Nique (Precious) (winner) - I don’t think there are going to be any real surprises or upsets in the acting categories.  Mo’Nique walks away with this one easily.  Amazing performance as one of the most insidious mothers in film history.
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Crazy Heart) - I liked the film but thought Maggie was terribly miscast.  Her nomination is puzzling.
Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air) - Such a charismatic performance as the elusive object of Clooney’s desire.
Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air) - She has only been acting since 2003 and is only 24 years old with an Oscar nomination.  Her fiery yet vulnerable Natalie Keener is one of the best parts about the film.
Penélope Cruz (Nine) - Haven’t seen it.

Best Director

Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) (winner) - As I mentioned before, Kathryn Bigelow walked away with the Director’s Guild Award which has correctly predicted the winner 50 out of the last 61 years.  She deserves it.  Her eye for action scenes and her ability to build tension are uncanny.
James Cameron (Avatar) - If Bigelow wins, it will be to her ex-husband.  And stupidity will once again have reared its head Sunday night.
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) - I had a hell of a good time with this film but one criticism I recently heard about QT that I believe holds some validity is that he creates individual scenes that are indelible masterpieces.  But, he needs to bring that same level of skill to his entire films to create better cohesion.
Lee Daniels (Precious) - Lee has created a really special film.  Just read my review.  I don’t have much more to say about it.
Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) - Jason makes his screenplay and his directing pop.  Every scene works.

Best Documentary Feature

The Cove (winner) - Louie Psihoyos has created a piece of thoughtful and exhilarating environmental propaganda that moved me deeply much to my surprise.
Food, Inc. - An unforgettable and disturbing look at how we consume.  If this wins, I’ll be happy too.
Burma VJ - Haven’t seen it.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers - Haven’t seen it.
Which Way Home - Haven’t seen it.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner (Up in the Air) (winner)
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (District 9)
Nick Hornby (An Education)
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche (In the Loop) - Excruciatingly funny.  I’d be happy with this win too.
Geoffrey Fletcher (Precious)

Best Original Screenplay

Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) - Mark Boal won the Writer’s Guild Award this year, but I think QT will pull off the Oscar.
Mark Boal (The Hurt Locker)
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman (The Messenger)
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (A Serious Man)
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter. Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy (Up)